Centre of Irma to make landfall in lower Florida

Irma - one of the strongest storms ever recorded on the Atlantic - has killed at least 24 people in the Caribbean islands, according to CNN. So far, 600,000 in South Florida are without power. FPL said its two nuclear plants were safe. "If you look out your window right now, we have tropical storm wind gusts".

Irma's winds eased to about 100 kilometers per hour Monday as the storm continued to move on a northwest path, away from Florida.

This makes it the most sustained category 5 storm and the second most sustained major hurricane in the satellite era (starting in 1966), trailing behind Ivan in 2004.

As Irma has fallen apart, its wind field has expanded, Okulski said.

The storm, located about 5 miles (10 kilometers) west of Columbus, Georgia, is still bringing heavy rain to the U.S. Southeast on Monday night.

Currently, more than 3 million customers are without power across Florida, according to utility companies. A total of 4.2 million have been affected, with about 570,000 seeing service restored, mostly by automated devices.

Jones warned that some Floridians "may not have power for a number of days, if not weeks".

"Florida's $109 billion tourism industry came to a screeching halt this weekend", Dan Weber, who spent 30 years in the Florida insurance business where he specialized in flooding, told FOX Business.

In the dark: Most of the city (72%) is without power, the mayor said.

Meanwhile, Duke EnergyreportedMonday morning that more than 860,000 of the homes and businesses it serves in Florida were without power.

We also noticed the same phenomenon in the Hillsborough River in downtown Tampa and off of Bayshore Boulevard. The plant stopped operating in 2009 and was retired in 2013.

Rescuers used boats, water scooters and even surfboards to get to residents surprised by the rising waters, said Kimberly Morgan, a spokeswoman for the Clay County emergency center. "It's awful, what we saw".

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